Greenville-Pitt County Chamber 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Kate Teel

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.

Episode 76 — Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Kate Teel
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Kate Teel
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.2 Brandon Burton
This special episode is part of our 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist series, where you get to hear from some of the top chambers across the country. I hope you find great value in this series, but first, the intro. This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
00:38.39 Brandon Burton
Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is Brandon Burton, and you're joining us today for episode 76, which is also our fifth interview in our ACCE 2020 Chamber of the Year finalist series. And of course, with this podcast, it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. And if you happen to be new to listening to Chamber Chat Podcast, I would invite you to check out our Get Started page, which would be found at Chamberchatpodcast.com slash start. And from there you can find a resource for some non-dues revenue ideas, as well as our free chamber podcasting guide if you've ever considered starting a podcast for your own chamber. So again, that's chamberchatpodcast.com slash start. So our guest today. is Kate Teel. And Kate is the president and CEO of the Greenville Pitt County Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina. Kate was born and raised in North Carolina. And after graduating from East Carolina University with a Bachelor's of Arts in Exercise and Sports Science and Communications Major, or minor rather, communications minor, Kate went on to hold jobs in the private sector related to health and fitness. After working in this field for a couple of years, she transitioned to the city of Greenville, where she became experienced in local govern in the local government sector, as well as volunteering within the city of Greenville's nonprofit committees. Following her five years at the city, Kate was hired as the director of membership relations and programs for the Greenville Pitt County Chamber of Commerce in 2016. Where she was promoted to vice president in 2017. In her role, the chamber grew financially and overall in membership growth and participation. On March 1st, 2019, Kate began as the president and CEO of the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, which is also the only five-star accredited chamber in the state of North Carolina. Under her leadership, the chamber has grown to a record number of members.
03:03.394 Brandon Burton
Has experienced strong fiscal growth and become more active in governmental affairs and public policy work, and has been influential in the development of a public private partnership for economic development countywide. In Kate's first year as president and CEO, the chamber was named Chamber of the Year by the Carolinas Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives and re accredited as a five star Chamber of Commerce by the U.S. Chamber. Kate and her husband Graham have two daughters and are incredibly proud to call Greenville their home. I am excited to have Kate hit some of the highlights about the Greenville Pitt County Chamber and what's making them stand out to be recognized as a Chamber of the Year finalist. And we will get into this discussion as soon as we get back from hearing from our sponsor. Chambers are not considered for Chamber of the Year without having great programs and steady streams of non-dues revenue. I want to introduce you to a great affinity program from Swypit. In partnership with Chamber Chat Podcast, Swypit is one of the best credit card processors in the business. With the Swypit Affinity program, you can save up to 40% on your credit card processing fees at the Chamber and help your member partners to do the same. Chambers who take advantage of the Swypit Affinity program can add thousands of dollars to their non-dues revenue annually. Please visit Chamberchatpodcast.com/slash CC for more information and to request your complimentary cost savings analysis from the experts at Swypit. The first 20 chambers to respond will qualify for free equipment to get set up. Again, visit Chamberchatpodcast.com slash C C to start swiping with Swypit. All right, Kate, we are back. If you would take a moment and say hello to all the chamber champions out there and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better.
05:12.942 Kate Teel
All right, first, thank you, Brandon, for having me in for this opportunity to share with our chamber peers across the country. Hello to all of you. I hope everything is well with you in your chambers and look forward to connecting soon. Something interesting about me, as you can tell from my bio, health and fitness have always been a part of my life. From the time that I was old enough for sports. Again, from my bio that led to a major in college, I have exercised in sports science. And later down a path of entrepreneurship, owning my own franchise of a fitness training company. I was a brand new mom, balancing a full-time job, learning the ins and outs of becoming a mom and taking care of my family and starting my own small franchise really taught me a lot about myself, my passions, and my drive. And then after our second child was born, I took a step back, gave up my part-time entrepreneur life and focused on family and my career. And I'm sure glad I did because about that time is when the door opened to the Chamber of Commerce. And so I I had a short bout with the the entrepreneur excuse me, entrepreneur life and really feel that that gave me the opportunity to connect in a different way as a leader of a chamber.
06:29.622 Brandon Burton
Yeah, that is a neat perspective to be able to come to on the chamber level to be able to have that entrepreneurial background and be able to really relate to a lot of those businesses you're helping to advocate for. So I can see that that coming in handy. why don't you share with us a little bit about the Greenville Pitt County Chamber, just maybe size, location, budget, so give us all a little better per idea of the perspective that you're coming with as we have our discussion today.
06:58.734 Kate Teel
Absolutely. Greenville, North Carolina, believe it or not, is one of 34 Greenville in the United States. And I'm certainly biased in saying that I'm fortunate to live in the best Greenville there is. There's Greenville, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina, and have some great friends at the Greenville, South Carolina Chamber. We get phone calls from their members quite often, and I'm sure they do the same. So there's lots of Greenvilles. across the United States, and I'm honored to work as the chamber president here in Greenville, North Carolina, alongside my incredible team and our nine hundred and forty-seven members. We have an annual operating budget of just over $800,000. And as you mentioned in our bio, I'm incredibly proud to share that we are a five-star accredited chamber by the US Chamber of Commerce and have been for three consecutive accreditation cycles. We do remain the only five-star chamber in the state of North Carolina. And in 2019, again, proud of our chamber as we were named to the Chamber of Commerce, excuse me, the Chamber of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce Associations of the Carolinas. We live in a community of approximately 180,000 with a large community college, and we are home to East Carolina University, the fourth largest university in the UNC system, and many of you might know. the East Carolina Pirates as we play on TV and our sports, as well as our various medical schools that that the university does house here in our community. So we are a growing community with lots of opportunity. it's a unique place to live, work, and play in a college town that has a very vibrant business community.
08:38.018 Brandon Burton
That is awesome. Yeah. So just a few weeks ago, it's funny you mentioned all the different Greenvilles. We had Liz Horton on the show from Greenville, South Carolina. Yeah. So people will be familiar after hearing her episode. They'll they'll be well aware that there's Greenville North and South Carolina. So so let's let's talk a little bit about the your Chamber of the Year application, the synopsis that was submitted along with that. And if you could
08:55.726 Kate Teel
Right. Yeah.
09:07.596 Brandon Burton
kind of take us through the highlights of that and kind of what what you're proud of about those the highlights in that synopsis.
09:15.854 Kate Teel
Absolutely. timing is funny, right? There's you never know what life is gonna come at you with. And March 13th was the deadline for the Chamber of the Year application, which if you all think a little bit back on March, the beginning of March for us here, March 13th happened to be the deadline of this application as well as the day that North Carolina shut down d due to COVID-19. And you know, we we submitted this application knowing that we were on the heels of a global pandemic and what that looked like we did not know. so this application came at a a challenging time where we were balancing work, leading a chamber of commerce as well as submitting the highlights of our previous year. so it was certainly a challenge by all means to get this application done and submitted while knowing that there was so much uncertainty coming around the corner. as a highlight a little bit more about our synopsis, our chamber in 2019 launched a workforce development initiative called Grow Local, and actually had seen a similar concept from the greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce at an ACCE convention. And as we saw, every year our chairman, we have a one-year chairmanship, and the chairmen really like to hang their hat on an initiative or a program to lead the chamber forward in that year. Our chairman at the time is in higher education. And as we talked a lot about workforce development, the scarcity and abundance initiative through the Horizons campaign, you know, we talked about we have manufacturing facilities that are here. We have small businesses, a growing entrepreneurial system locally. And we're blessed to live in a place that has a strong public school system, a community college, and a large university. And so how do we make that connection between our youth and the future that they have here. Frankly, we have a population, and I'm one of them, who said once I left East Carolina University, I did not want to stick around here. I was ready to take the flight and go somewhere else. I tried that and two months later I found myself right back here. And so making the connection at an early age to educate our middle and high school students about the opportunities for their careers locally was a highlight of our work.
11:40.522 Kate Teel
So Grow Local, it took us a year to plan. We knew that we wanted to introduce middle and high school students to local careers, and it had to be something more than a video to watch. I'll just use our public utility as an example. You have to do something more than to show them a video. You really have to connect these students and give them an idea of all of the different careers that are housed in one company here locally. and so we said we don't want to take them into a convention center where they could do a a career expo, for example. You know, they're gonna go from table to table to table, and there's not gonna be that, most likely there won't be a spark or a connection with these students and the various careers that they have. So, how do we make this impactful and really show them just because you think of a utility company does not mean that you have to run the water lines or you have to climb the telephone poles to fix, but they have an attorney on. on staff, they have communications on staff, they have administration. there's a whole host of careers that happen inside of one company, organization, or a business. And so how do we highlight that? and that took us into planning Grow Local. The idea of that is to introduce, involve, inspire, and invest in our youth while highlighting careers in our own community and the education that's needed for those careers. We were incredibly blown away. We did not know what year one would look like, obviously starting something from scratch. We set out a goal of a hundred students, excuse me, 800 to 1,000 students with 100 businesses signing up in year one and were completely blown away when we had 2,734 students sign up for this work in in over a hundred businesses. And so we worked to match a s a class. The teacher will go in and sign up their class for this work. and I'll use a chemistry class for example. It would not make sense to send a chemistry class into the newspaper facility. The curriculum is not the same. it's important for us to match curriculum relevant to what they're learning to real life experiences in the business. And so we we take that essentially six months of a process through the year to match the classes.
13:58.636 Kate Teel
With a local business. They match up. We pair the business. The students go off site to learn more. And the business is challenged with giving the students a hands-on experience. So really to feel it, to experience it, to understand what a day in the life of that company looks like. And then really t hopefully sparking an interest in their future as a career. Or on the other side. If the student does say, you know, I want to be a nurse and they go into the hospital to learn more about this, to get hands-on experience, and they find out that they're absolutely terrified of blood or needles or hospital facility, then we've done something early instead of them wasting time and money in their education path to show them that, you know, maybe I need to look at something else. This was not it for me.
14:45.366 Brandon Burton
That is a very good thing to know early on. Absolutely.
14:48.406 Kate Teel
Right. Yes. so first year, two thousand seven hundred thirty-four students. It happens in a matter of five days and it's pure chaos. It is terrifying to know that you've got these students going all over the community. School buses are everywhere, but at the same time it's incredibly exciting to watch it happen. And then on the flip side, we we know that students have already landed jobs with these companies that they went in to work with. just from that one day we had the first year, one student that was hired for a a local car company doing mechan mechanical work within the company, and another student that was hired for a part-time summer job with an interior decorator. And so we've been able to to show success in the first year of that. In year two, we had over 4,200 students sign up for this work and we said we cannot guarantee everybody we're gonna put a cap and a limit at 3,500. and unfortunately, this grow local work was scheduled to happen the week that COVID-19 hit North Carolina. And so we've had to put that on hold right now while we look at obviously what that looks like moving forward and relaunching once the time comes back. we've been incredibly blessed to work with our school system who has taken this on from the very start. And saying yes to basically everything that the chamber comes up with, which sometimes I'm like, I can't believe they said yes to this. you know, the school day, it's it's a straight five days of chaos with their students leaving campus. But at the same time, they know that education is changing, it's it's it's evolving constantly. And in order for the students of Pitt County schools to be successful in their future. They know that partnering with the chamber has been incredibly important to ensure that these students have an opportunity to see what we have for local experiences here within our business community. So that was our Grow Local program.
16:51.608 Brandon Burton
So I'm always curious on on programs like this where you have high school students involved, do you have a way and any kind of mechanisms to be able to track their success? Like y you know, to look at a student and say four or five years down the road, did they end up going that direction with the major? Did they end up in that field? I don't know if there's mechanisms that you could put into place or not, but I'm always curious to to know what that looks like for you.
17:17.25 Kate Teel
That is a work in progress for us as we develop and and grow this program into the future. we don't track the the students that participate by name, but they go with their teachers. the school system is able to keep up with it. And we are seeing a lot of our employers who are starting to talk about adding on their application, have you participated or did you participate in the Grow Local program? so if they check that box, then we 100% know that these students. they grew up here, they want to stay here, and they experienced the company or a local company through this grow local program. So tracking it is a high priority for us and being able to quantify the students that we put through and turn that into some metrics to report out over the long term is something that we are really working to develop through this program.
18:08.17 Brandon Burton
Sounds great. So what is your your other synopsis that was submitted?
18:13.888 Kate Teel
Our second synopsis was under the catalytic leadership as we discussed a lot more about our our own local economy. for years and years and years, we have been successful at business retention. we've got a lot of industry that's here in addition to our education sector. we boast the top one of the top community colleges in the state, a number of manufacturing facilities. large medical facilities, but unfortunately we have not experienced economic prosperity or growth that could be on par with counties around us or even within our own state. And so our economic development has been housed with our county and by no fault of anyone's, you know, we we have companies that look to come here and for whatever reason are were just not successful in landing a new company. here locally. And so to address this, our chamber, along with some community leaders and businesses, began discussions around the creation of a public-private partnership around economic development. So that those conversations happened around 2017. And just like all good conversations, they're met with questions, conflicting emotions, you know, the what ifs. So to answer that the questions and the what ifs, we here at the chamber said, Why don't we help you paint a clear picture of what if we do this? So we we spearheaded an intercity visit, which many chambers host intercity visits on an annual basis for members of our community to go and see a successful work in action, which in turn shifted our work here in our own community. So we took 32 of our community leaders who were either fully supportive of a public-private partnership or on the fence. And so we wanted both both to see it. You can read about this, you can talk about it, but unless you actually go and experience this and see it firsthand for yourself, you don't truly understand and grasp the work in and in an effort to bring it back locally. So we traveled down to ironically Greenville, South Carolina and Spartanburg, South Carolina.
20:33.492 Kate Teel
as an aspirational city, Spartanburg, South Carolina has done a tremendous job on their public-private partnership and aligning organizations to move their community forward for economic development purposes, for community engagement. And frankly, they've seen tremendous success in bringing local companies, expanding companies, and just really moving the needle forward for their own community. So we took these leaders. From Greenville, North Carolina down to Greenville, Spartanburg, South Carolina for a four-day fully immersed experience to go and see, you know, how did you create this? What adversity was there to creating your own public-private partnership? How did you overcome that? Give us the numbers. Frankly, I'm a data-driven person. Numbers do not lie. You cannot argue the numbers. And they had a tremendous presentation to our community about. The way things were prior to their public-private partnership and the way they are on a trajectory towards their third year now, I think it is, for their public-private partnership. As soon as we got on the bus from our first day, you could see the the passion in our community's face that you know what, we we might have questioned this, we might have had a little bit of emotion and conflict with this. but you know what, the numbers don't lie. We have a community that's ready to move forward with a public private partnership. So we continued our intercity visit, came back, and as any great chamber would do, said, let's not just put this work on the shelf, let's continue the conversation and work towards the creation of our own public private partnership. so that happened, the intercity visit happened in 2018. A short year later, and I'm blown away to say that. In one year from when we took our intercity visit, we had successfully launched our own public-private partnership around economic development in eastern North Carolina. We had the chamber housed the Committee of 100, which many communities do have a committee of 100. We housed that here as an umbrella of the chamber and utilized the Committee of 100 to transition into the public-private partnership along with our public utilities and our city.
22:56.712 Kate Teel
unfortunately, there's still a little hesitation from a countywide level. and so the creation of this, it's now called the Greenville ENC Alliance, the creation of this alliance has really aligned our chamber through the catalytic leadership to have a voice for business. our community, there was a survey, 78% of the survey participants strongly, strongly supported the public-private partnership, with only 5% not supportive. So we our chamber has taken a stand and advocate for the public-private partnership. It was clear to us that our community noticed this work is needed and worth moving forward in economic development across our community. We have advocated on behalf of the partnership to our Pitt County commissioners who are holding up the votes for the countywide to join the alliance. And really have seen stronger support than what we had ever envisioned for the public-private partnership. So through the leadership of the chamber, you know, you can go and see a city and say, we want to talk about arts and culture. How can how can we benchmark against another community that's great in arts and culture? How can we bring talent and workforce development? And sometimes you go and you see another community and it doesn't quite resonate. But we were very targeted in the reason that we went to Spartanburg, who went with us and brought that back to immediate action on a local level. Our chamber still houses the records of the Alliance. We are still working in partnership with them. And so it's been a critical part of the involvement of the chamber and the alliance to continue getting this up off the ground. And it's something that the collaboration between our organization. And the new organization will continue for the future and has the credibility of the chamber has gone a long way in getting this his this alliance off the ground and running. I'm also proud to say that just last week the the alliance was a part of the announcement of a new job creation grant from our city, bringing 200 new jobs to our community. And so for a community that sat stagnant for quite some time.
25:18.52 Kate Teel
To take a trip in 2018, start a public-private partnership from that trip in 2019, and then halfway through 2020 already have a job announcement of 200 new jobs. You know, two two years doesn't sound like a lot of time, but for that work to come up, it really it it speaks volumes to the need in our community. And I'm proud that the chamber has been able to spearhead that that visit and be a a voice for business as we move forward towards positive economic growth.
25:50.38 Brandon Burton
That is awesome. I think that intercity trip really paid off to be able to get those fence sitters, you know, on the right side or on the side for for progress and growth with that public private partnership. And it sounds like there in in Greenville, Eastern North Carolina, you guys have really positioned yourself well with not only economic development, but also keeping that workforce there local with your your grow local campaign. So I think good things are are in the near future for you guys. That's awesome.
26:21.646 Kate Teel
It's exciting time to be here and I'm honored to have the position.
26:25.068 Brandon Burton
That's right. So what are some things maybe that you guys are doing there at the Greenville Pitt County Chamber that you feel like make you stand out and that maybe other chambers aren't doing, but that you're you're proud of your chamber for doing and and that may be maybe stand out above the others.
26:42.456 Kate Teel
Sure. that kind of summarize I'll summarize that in my synopsis stories is we I feel like our chamber is an ever evolving, not a duplication of prior years kind of organization. community leadership is a top priority for myself. it as advocacy, the leadership of our within our community and a vow to never, ever, ever give up. I'll share a brief story on how our chamber got here and just Goes to show the importance of not just our chamber, but any chamber of commerce and make what makes us stand out. I'm actually sitting in a historic home that was built in the early 1900s, the Fleming House. and it was the home to one of North Carolina's state senators, Mr. Fleming. He There was a commute there is a community about 30 miles away from here. And once they were talking about developing the college at the time, which which which we now call East Carolina University, one community, Kinston, North Carolina, was going to get a hospital and the other community was going to get the college. And Mr. Fleming said, Greenville has got to be the home of this college. How can we make sure that Greenville gets it? And so the lo and behold, the Chamber of Commerce was developed to advocate on behalf of Greenville and not Kinston, 30 miles away. So he was the brainchild behind the Greenville Pitt County Chamber of Commerce. The chamber was developed and started in 1907 to advocate on behalf of the city of Greenville to get what we now call East Carolina University here. as opposed to the Caswell Center, which is a hospital in Kinston, North Carolina. And so just knowing that from day one, our chamber was the voice for business to advocate on what honestly has been a game changer in this community. I cannot imagine living here without East Carolina University. Kinston is a great town, it's a small town, and by no means is Greenville Kinston. so from an early start, the chamber was developed to
28:50.622 Kate Teel
To fight on behalf of our business community to get what we now have here. And we continue to do so. Obviously, we have advocated for a public-private partnership and proved successful with that advocacy. Years ago, our chamber was advocating for a dental school as a part of East Carolina University and the School of Medicine. It was it was reached at the state level with a little bit of hesitation. In our chamber community, we Took leaders within our community up to Raleigh to advocate on behalf of East Carolina University to get the dental school here. Lo and behold, I'm proud to say that East Carolina does have a school of dentistry here in our community. So we really pride ourselves on looking at the needs of our future while we create a vehicle to lead our community into that future and being out front of the needs. before others frankly even realize that that need exists. The development of the local campaign, we know that workforce and the need for talent exists, but do does our community at large know? So I'm I'm really proud to say that ambition, ever evolving, never giving up and having that stick to it, determination to make things happen within our local community really sets our chamber apart from others.
30:07.662 Brandon Burton
That is awesome. I love the background that you gave and the the whole, you know, story of Mr. Fleming and now having the chamber housed in in his house. It's very fitting. so this next question that I have for you, I think is it's obviously very timely and pertinent for chambers across the country. But as we record this, we're towards the end of May 2020. And as you've referenced a coup a couple of times, Yeah, we're kind of in the midst of the the COVID nineteen pandemic. would you mind sharing maybe what some of your thoughts and plans would be about how you plan on leading your business community there, through the recovery from the economic impact that has affected the majority of the businesses across the country, but specifically in your community, what your what your plans are like.
30:59.31 Kate Teel
Absolutely. In the initial, you know, very beginning of March, our our chamber staff set forward to contact every single member within our organization. And while that took us about two and a half, almost three weeks to complete, we knew that our support in initial work was in a triage mode, right? There's so many questions, there's so much uncertainty in every business response was help. and we didn't know what help was, they didn't know what help was, but darn if we weren't gonna make sure that we fought to find out the answers, to connect them to the resources and the information to help. So initially we really looked at our work as more as more of a triage. if nothing else, then to lend an ear. A lot of these businesses were frustrated, they were scared. and while we were also, you you put that aside and make sure that you are lending an ear and just let them talk to let them vent because they will do that. And that's important for them to do exactly that, just to have somebody to talk to. And so now we are looking more at a recovery mode as we come back on the other side of this. We are working with both the public and private sectors to lead recovery efforts and to ensure that every business has a fighting chance. As we come out on the other side. And timing, unfortunately, is not something that any of us has an idea on how long, what this looks like, you know, where do we go into the future? And so that's really been the work of our chamber. There is an incredible need for the business community to come together as well as our government sector. And so how we can lead and answer the questions to connect them, as well as building a recovery task force and being a voice for business. Every time I'm on a call with anyone from our city or county government, they look to the chamber to share information about what the businesses are saying, what are the needs of the businesses, and then that in turn really develops the work of our city and county government as they move forward at a local level. and then obviously working across the state with our peers through North Carolina as we look to rebuild North Carolina as a part of the business community here.
33:11.81 Kate Teel
In addition, I'm also taking time right now, frankly, to work on our chamber. chambers don't look the same as we did three months ago. And three months from now, we aren't going to look the same as we do right now. And so while it's incredibly important to lead our community to support our businesses, it's equally important to lead our own organizations. and so as I take time away from recovery with a within our own community, a tremendous amount of my my downtime, if you will, whatever that time is in the world, is spent around, you know, what does the chamber look like in the future? What how are we going to come out of this as strong as we were going into it? And so equal time at the business level of of our recovery as a community as there is recovery as a chamber of commerce and making sure that our work remains relevant, our work remains important. And you know, frankly, making sure that We're here for hundreds of years in the future.
34:13.336 Brandon Burton
I'm glad that you're putting in the time at your chamber to focus on the chamber. And as you're giving that that response, I was thinking of the whole the airplane scenario, the oxygen mask, and you you have to put on your own mask to be able to help others and make sure that your your organization is strong and healthy and is able to to be there for the long term to be that support. So great, great advice. So Kate, what might be one action item that you could suggest a a tip maybe if you will for those that are listening to apply at their chamber to to help take their chamber up to the next level.
34:52.064 Kate Teel
Absolutely. When someone gives you a challenge, see to it. I was told by a good friend in my first year as president at the chamber, just move into the position and keep things going for a while. And I kind of sat there and looked at the person like, Are you kidding me? there he this person said, There's a lot that you are going to inherit that you're going to want to change immediately at an early level. but do not look at things, see it first, and then down the road, then look to begin to change. as a leader, you have to lead the change. If someone else was meant for this work, they'd be in this seat and not you. you lead the change, you change you face it straight on. Your organizations, your team, your members, and your community will be better off in the long run. It's not easy. and in fact, it's exact opposite. most importantly, I say just face the challenge. Do not ever give up. Don't let someone tell you to come in and just keep things going. Rise to the challenge. Know that there are better things that you can accomplish and be proud of the leadership that you have within your your chamber and your organization. Don't ever give up and just continue to challenge yourself every day. No day is the same, certainly right now more than ever. No day is ever the same when you work for a chamber of commerce. And that's the beauty of it. And you have the opportunity to change your community one business at a time.
36:23.914 Brandon Burton
That's awesome. the question I'd like to ask to everyone that I have on Chamber Chat Podcast is as we look to the future, specifically the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see their purpose going forward?
36:40.216 Kate Teel
Future is a funny thing to to even talk about right now. And I really think about our chamber and your chamber, any chamber was born to lead a business community in the fight for survival. everything that our chamber has done since 1907, as I have mentioned earlier, and what got us to where we are today, has honestly been getting us ready for the very moment that we're in right now. We often talk about our mission and our vision for the future as our organization, leading our members and our community. And again, right now the future is Tuesday or Wednesday or next week. often we are talking about the future as next year, and it's hard to even think about in in midst of a COVID pandemic, as a global pandemic, what the future looks like because there's just so much uncertainty. So so think of it as right now, future is next week. There's no blueprint for this work. And that's what makes it hard. It's what makes what makes it challenging. And we fall back on what we know about ourselves, our businesses, and our people. As long as there's a business and a chamber willing to fight, adapt, and pull together, be proud that the chamber is right there through it all. And while we might not be able to predict the future, this is our time to create a better one. So think forward, give yourself a challenge. Rise to the occasion and know that no matter what the future looks like, if it's tomorrow, if it's next week, if it's next year, this is our time to create a better one. And what a better time it is to be in a chamber of commerce and to lead an organization to create a better future.
38:18.092 Brandon Burton
That's right. Chambers have never been more relevant. And I love how you said that. Lead your business community in a fight for survival. That's that's where we're at. So Kate, as we wrap things up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity for those that are listening, if they wanted to reach out with you, reach out to you or if they had questions about anything that you presented in our discussion today, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?
38:25.998 Kate Teel
So
38:42.51 Kate Teel
Absolutely. I'm happy to connect with anybody. My email is Kate K A T E at greenville nc.org. Please feel free to email me anytime or connect with me via phone. Our office number here is 252-752-4101, extension two two two two two two eight. Our chamber website is greenvillenc.org, and I encourage you to take a look around if there's something that you have questions on. We've got a lot of work. around our Grow Local campaign on our website as well as our YouTube page dedicated to the work of the chamber. And just thank you again, Brandon, for this time and thank you all to the chamber leaders across the country for the great work that you do representing every community.
39:24.744 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. And I will be sure to update your contact information in the show notes for this episode, which will be found at chamberchatpodcast dot com slash episode seventy-six. And again, Kate, thank you so much for spending time with us today and sharing all the great things that you and your team are doing there at the Greenville Pitt County Chamber of Commerce and wish you the best with the Chamber of the Year.
39:47.448 Kate Teel
Thank you very much, Brandon.
39:50.528 Brandon Burton
If you are a Chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast, new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you're finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.